Rotary perfector letterpress



Aug. 11, 1959 H. E. PEYREBRUNE 2,398,851

ROTARY PERFECTOR LETTERPRESS Filed March 1, 1956 z Sheets- Sheet 1 b NW N I a $8 INVENTOR. Henri E. Peyr-e'brune Acre 1 8 1, 1959 H. E. PEYREBRUNE 2,898,851

ROTARY PERFECTOR LETTERPRESS N 63x: INVENTOR.

Henri E. Peyrebrune BY W Affoneff w 2,898,851 ROTARY PERFECTOR LETTERPRES'S Henri E. Peyrebrune, River Forest, Ill. assig'nor to Miehle- Goss-Dexter, Incorporated, a corporation of Delaware Application March 1, 1956, Serial No. 568,935

8 Claims. (Cl. 101-136) The present invention relates to improvements in rotary sheet fed perfecting letter presses. It more specifically pertains to that class of printing presses which comprise a series of substantially identical printing units for applying impressions on one side of sheets fed thereto, and additional printing means for printing on the other side of the sheets.

Such units include one plate cylinder coacting with an impression cylinder and having associated therewith conventional transfer means for conveying the sheets from the impression cylinder of one unit to that of an adjacent one.

In order to render the press easily accessible, the transfer means preferably consists of a series of transfer drums mounted between the units in a substantially horizontal plane, similar to the arrangement disclosed in Patent No. 2,100,852, issued to Jacobson.

According to the preferred form of the invention, the plate cylinders of the adjacent units lie in one horizontal plane whereas one plate cylinder of the additional, i.e. perfecting printing means, is located in the plane in which the sheet transfer members are mounted.

One of the primary objects of my invention is to provide an improved perfecting press of the class set forth, in which the impressions on the two sides of the sheets are applied in succession rather than simultaneously, as is Well known and frequently practiced in the art.

Another object of the invention resides in the arrangement of the plate cylinders and impression cylinders in the adjacent units in mutually vertical alignment, whereas the sheet transfer members are arranged in substantially horizontal alignment.

A further object of the invention is to provide a perfecting press of the class set forth, having two or more adjacent, identical color. printing units arranged to print on one side of the sheets fed thereto, and additional printing means organized to apply one or more impressions upon the other side of the sheets, all of said identical units including a plate cylinder and an impression cylinder, means comprising at least three transfer drums arranged between the adjacent units in a plane substantially common to all drums, and organized to convey sheets from one impression cylinder to that of an adjacent unit.

A still further object of the invention resides in the impression cylinder of the additional unit having associated 2,898,851 Patented Aug. 11, 1959 I ofiset means which includes a roller having a fixed axis of rotation for depositing offset preventing fluid onto the surface of the perfecting unit impression cylinder, said means being located to the rear of said cylinder and between said last transfer drum and thecoacting delivery drum, the grippers on said cylinder being recessed so as to pass said roller without interference and to obviate the necessity for tripping said roller.

Other objects and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following specification and appended claims.

In the drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment of my invention:

Figure 1, is a diagrammatic view in side elevation of the improved rotary perfector press;

,Figure 2, is an enlarged sectional view showing the arrangement of the cylinders and oil wipe mechanism; and

Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6, are views illustrating the coaction of the grippers between the drums and the perfecting impression cylinder.

In Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings I have illustrated a sheet fed, rotary perfecting printing press of the unit type adapted to print two color impressions upon both sides of sheets fed thereto. The first unit A comprises a frame member 10 which supports a plate cylinder 11, its associated inking mechanism 12 and a coacting impression cylinder 13.

The second unit B is substantially identical to unit A, having a frame member 14 which supports the plate cylinder 15, its associated inking mechanism 16 and a coacting impression cylinder 17.

The third unit C also is similar to the preceding units Aand B having a frame member 18 which supports a plate cylinder 19, the inking mechanism 21 associated therewith, and a coacting impression cylinder 22. In addition, however, unit C is provided with a second plate cylinder 23 and its associated inking mechanism 24. Accordingly two sequential impressions are applied to each sheet carried by the impression cylinder 22.

The sheets to be printed may be fed to the impression cylinder 13 by any conventional means such as, for ex ample, a stop gripper mechanism having gripper elements 26 which function to take a sheet while at rest on the register table 27 and transfer it to the gripper elements 28 on the impression cylinder 13.

After receiving its impression from the printing unit A, the sheet is transferred to the gripper elements 29 on the impression cylinder 17 of the second printing unit B by means of an uneven number, preferably three, transfer drums 31, 32 and 33 which are equipped with gripper elements 34, 35 and 36 respectively.

Upon receiving the second impression from the unit B, the sheet is transferred to the gripper elements 37 on the impression cylinder 22 of unit C by means of an even number, preferably four, transfer drums. 38,

" 39, 40 and 41 having gripper elements 42, 43, 44 and 45 respectively. The fourth drum is provided between units B and C so as to present the sheet to the cylinder 22 in reversed or up side down relation to receive the I impressions in unit C on the opposite face thereof.

After having received impressions from both plate cylinder 23 and 19, the sheet is taken by the gripper elements 47 of the delivery drum 48 and transferred to the grippers 49 of the delivery reel 50. Thereupon, the sheet is transferred to a second delivery reel 51, the grippers 52 of which transfer the sheet to an endless chain delivery conveyor D which carries the sheet over the unit C to a delivery pile.

It will be noted that in the preferred arrangement as shown, all of the corresponding cylinders, such as the impression and plate cylinders of the respective units are situated in horizontal planes with the respective series of transfer drums being located in one substantially horizontal plane below the plane of the impression cylinders. Moreover, the additional plate cylinder of unit C is arranged to occupy the position normally taken by a transfer drum and, therefore, it is located in the same horizontal plane as are all said drums. Such an arrangement lends itself to economy in manufacture, accessibility, and efficiency in operation and maintenance.

In multi-color perfecting printing presses of the design such as is disclosed herein, it is exceedingly important that anti-offset means be provided to prevent any of the ink from the impressions on the first side of the sheet from offsetting onto the surface of the perfecting impression cylinder as the sheet receives impressions upon the reverse or back side thereof.

A preferred arrangement of a device for this purpose, commonly referred to as an oil wipe mechanism, which has proven very effective in practice and which incorporates various controls whereby precision adjustments may be made in accordance with the requirements of any job, is illustrated in Figure 2. This device is adapted to apply a thin film of oil over the entire surface of the tympan 53 on the perfecting impression cylinder 22 which oil functions to prevent the ink from preceding impressions from adhering to, i.e., offsetting onto the tympan when the. sheet receives the perfecting impressions.

As shown in Figure 2, the oil wipe mechanism consists of an oil reservoir 54 which is provided with a wick 56 for transferring a continuous supply of oil, by capillary action, to the surface of a distributing roller 57. The latter is arranged to be rotated intermittently whereby to convey the oil to a second wick 58, which in turn deposits a film of oil onto the surface of the oil wipe roller 59. The roller 59 is preferably mounted for rotation about a fixed shaft 61 and in a manner that its surface maintains constant contact with the tympan 53. A friction drive is thus effected which drives the roller 59 at the same surface speed 'as the cylinder 22 and whereby the oil deposited on the surface of roller 59 is transferred and distributed evenly over the entire surface of the tympan 53.

The means whereby the roller 57 is intermittently rotated comprises an eccentric cam 62 which is secured to a drive shaft projecting from the transmission unit 63 and which cam is adapted to engage the depending end of a lever 64 which is pivotally mounted on a block 66 secured to the rod 67. The latter is slidably inserted in the boss 68 and a bracket 69 with its forward end connected to a lever 71 loosely mounted on the shaft 72. A pawl 73 mounted on the lever 71 is arranged to engage a ratchet wheel, not shown, secured to the end of roller 57. A spring 74 mounted on the rod 67 between the boss 68 and the collar 76 urges the rod 67 in a forward direction which motion is limited by engagement of the knob 77 with the bracket 69. It will be evident that as the eccentric cam 62 rotates, it will urge the lever 64 and therewith the rod 67 rearwardly against the tension of spring 74 and the pawl 73 will impart corresponding rotary motion to the roller 57. The spring 74 will return the rod 67 to its forward position as the cam 62 returns to the position shown in Figure 2.

The angular displacement of the roller 57, for any one cycle of operation, can also be varied and adjusted by means of the thumb screw 78 which is adjustably mounted in the block 66 with its projecting end in contact with the pivoted lever 64. By adjusting this screw relative to the lever 64 the effect of the cam 62 on the rod 67 can be varied whereby to increase or decrease the movement of the pawl 73 and thereby the rotary motion of the roller 57 which in turn varies the quantity of oil fed to the roller 59.

The roller 57 and therewith the wick 59 are also adapted to have reciprocating motion axially on their supporting shaft 72 in order to more effectively distribute the oil over the surface of the tympan 53.

For this purpose the bracket 81 which supports the wick 58 on the shaft 72, is formed with a rearwardly projecting arm 82, the rear edge of which is provided with a vertical groove to receive a roller 83. The latter is mounted eccentrically on the end of a drive shaft 84 of the transmission unit 63. As the shaft 84 rotates, the

eccentric roller 83, due to its engagement with the sides of the groove in arm 82, imparts relative reciprocating motion to the roller 57 and wick 58.

The oil wipe roller 59 also is reciprocated axially on the shaft 61 in unison with the other members by means of a pair of arms 86, only one of which is shown. These arms are secured to the bracket 31 at each end of the assembly and they project into grooved collars secured at each end of the roller 59. Consequently, the arms 86 will impart reciprocating motion to the roller 59 without affecting its rotary motion with the cylinder 22.

Tripping means are also provided whereby the supply of oil to the roller 59 may be discontinued at any time without affecting the other operations of the mechanism. In this respect the bracket 81 is provided with a second arm 87 to which is connected a rod 83. This rod is arranged substantially parallel to the rod 67 with its free end slidably inserted through an opening in the bracket 69. A compression spring 89 is mounted on the rod 88 between the bracket 6% and a collar 91 and it is adapted to exert pressure on the collar to maintain lever 87 in its forward position. The knob 92 limits the movement of the rod 88 and also provides convenient means for manually retracting said rod rearwardly against the tension of the spring whereby to pivot the bracket 81 about the shaft 72 and thereby raise the wick 58 out of contact with roller 59. This motion also disengages the arms 86 from the grooved collars on the roller 59.

It will be apparent that when the bracket 81 is pivoted about the axis of the shaft 72 whereby to trip the wick 58 from the roller 59, the lever 71 is unaffected and therefore, continues its oscillating movement whereby to rotate the disturbing roller 57. Moreover, the vertical slot in the edge of arm 82 permits it to move with the bracket 81 without affecting its drive relation with respect to the eccentrically mounted roller 83. The roller 59 also, will continue to rotate in contact with the cylinder 22, but its axial reciprocating motion will cease due to the withdrawal of the arms 86 from the grooved the cylinder 22, the gripper elements on said cylinder must be recessed to such an extent that, in their sheet holding position, they are wholly contained within the periphery of the cylinder.

Obviously, the extent to which the gripper elements can be recessed depends largely upon the elastic characteristics of the material to be processed and preferably must be kept to a minimum in order to preclude inducing stresses in the sheets or otherwise distorting them as they are being translated from one position to the other which might affect the register of the perfecting impressions upon the reverse side of the sheet.

It will be appreciated that when a sheet is transferred between adjacent transfer drums or a transfer drum and an impression cylinder, there is a short period, precisely at the point of transfer, during which the sheet is gripped momentarily by the gripper elements on both drums or wva z en the dfum and the'impression cylinder. This condition creates no problem under normal'circumstances, but when one set of thecoacting gripper elements is recessed, it will be apparent that, at the'precise point of transfer, the sheet will be flexed between the respective gripper elements to an extent equivalent to the differential in height between the respective gripper elements. Therefore, it is essential that this differential be confined within such limits that the sheet will not be stretched beyond its elastic limits and thereby permanently distorted or torn during the transfer from onemember to the next.

By actual tests, it has been determined that various grades and thicknesses of paper may be flexed and stretched under transfer conditions as set forth above, as much as .095 inch without tearing or becoming permanently distorted; However, the maximum limits are somewhat dependent upon the type of paper tested as well as the ambient relative humidity during the tests. It is inadvisable, however, to flex any sheet to its maximum limits during the transfer thereof because, although it may not tear or permanently disfigure the sheet, it will tend to induce stresses therein which may affect the register of subsequent impressions thereon.

For this reason, it is preferred that the translation of the gripper edge of the sheet, from its normal position at the surface of the transfer drums to the recessed position on the perfecting impression cylinder, be accomplished through a plurality of reduced steps whereby to minimize the flexing of the sheet at any one time and thereby increase the capacity of the press to handle a wider range of material having varying limits of elasticity.

As shown in Figures 2 to 6 inclusive, the gripper elements 37 on cylinder 22 comprise gripper pads 93 and coacting gripper fingers 94, the gripper pads being recessed so that the gripper fingers in their closed position, are wholly contained withinthe periphery of said cylinder which enables them to pass the oil wipe roller 59 without interference. It also will be noted that, because of their recessed position,the end faces 96 of the pads are inclined toward the periphery of the cylinder so as to coincide more favorably with the normal angle of the sheet when it is held by the cylinder grippers.

The gripper elements on the transfer drum 41 are comprised of pads 97 and gripper fingers 98 which, in accordance with the preferred embodiment of this invention, are arranged to project beyond the periphery of said drum with the end faces 99 of said pads being inclined in a reverse direction to the pads on the impression cylinder and at a lesser angle. The pads 101 and gripper fingers 102 which constitute the gripper elements 44 on the trans fer drum 40 are located in the conventional position with the end faces 103 of said pads being level and substantially tangent to the periphery of said drum.

With the respective pads and gripper fingers arranged in the above manner, it will be evident that as the sheet is transferred between the third and fourth transfer drums, 40 and 41 respectively, it will be flexed between the respective pads as shown in Figures 3 and 4. The pads 97, being raised above the periphery of drum 40, at the point of transfer, thereby flexing the sheet inwardly of drum 4% in the manner shown in Figure 4.

As the drum 41 takes over control of the sheet its projecting gripper pads and fingers actually carry the leading edge of the sheet in raised position so that when they reach the point of transfer with the impression cylinder 22, the sheet is already partially depressed within the periphery thereof as shown in Figure 5. At this point the gripper fingers 94 close on the sheet pulling it down the remaining distance to the face 96 of the recessed pads 93, and thereby causing it to be flexed inwardly of cylinder 22 as illustrated in Figure 6.

Obviously, the respective gripper elements on the drum 41 and cylinder 22 can be arranged so that the total movement of the sheet is effected in two equal steps. In other words, the gripper elements 45 can be positioned so that the sheet will be flexed to the same extent at the point of transfer between drums 40 and 41 as at the point of transfer between the drum 41 and the impression cylinder 22. v z

However, at the point of transfer between drum 41 and cylinder 22, the inclined faces of the respective gripper pads tend to aggravate the flexing condition of the sheet as they -move to and from the transfer point. Therefore, in actual practice it is preferable to position the gripper elements 45 in a manner that the sheet is flexed to a substantially greater extent during the transfer between drums 40 and 41 and consequently to a lesser extent during the transfer between drums 41 and cylinder 22, whereby to reduce the possibility of the sheet being distorted in any manner asit is taken by the grippers on the impression cylinder 22 and which might affect the register of the subsequent impressions thereon.

The gripper pads 104 and fingers 105 on the delivery drum 48 are arranged in the same manner as those of the transfer drum 41 so that after having received the impressions on cylinder 22, the gripper edge of the sheet is raised once again in successive steps to its normal position tangent to the periphery of the delivery reel 50.

While I have disclosed herein a preferred embodiment of my invention it will be apparent that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the spirit of this invention and which I intend to cover in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a rotary sheet fed letterpress of the class having two or more adjacent identical color printing units arranged to print on one side of sheets fed thereto, the provision of a perfecting unit organized to apply color impressions onto the other side of said sheets, all of said identical units including a plate cylinder and an impression cylinder, means comprisinga series of successively cooperative transfer drums arranged between said adjacent units and in a plane substantially common to all drums for conveyingsheets from the impression cylinder of one unit to that of an adjacent one, the platecylinders of said adjacent units being located in the same horizontal plane, whereas the plate cylinder of said perfecting unit is located in the plane common to said transfer drums.

2. A rotary sheet fed letterpress as set forth in claim 1, in which the means for conveying sheets from one unit to an adjacent one comprises at least three transfer drums, and wherein the impression cylinder of said perfecting unit has associated therewith anti-offsetting means comprising an oil wipe mechanism for preventing offsetting of the ink from preceding impressions on one side of the sheets onto the surface of the impression cylinder of said additional unit when applying the perfecting impressions.

3. In a rotary sheet fed letterpress of the class having two or more identical color printing units arranged to print on one side of sheets fed thereto, the provision of a perfecting printing unit comprising first and second plate cylinders and an impression cylinder common to both and organized to apply color impressions on the other side of the sheets, all of said identical units including a plate cylinder and an impression cylinder, means comprising a plurality of successively cooperative transfer drums arranged between said latter units and in a plane substantially common to all said drums for conveying sheets from the impression cylinder of one unit to that of an adjacent one, the plate cylinders of said adjacent units, and the second plate cylinder of said perfecting unit being located in the same horizontal plane, whereas the first plate cylinder of the latter unit is located in the plane common to said transfer drums.

4. A rotary sheet fed letterpress as set forth in claim 3, wherein the impression cylinder of said perfecting unit, has associated therewith anti-offsetting means comprising an oil-wipe mechanism for preventing offsetting of the ink from preceding impressions onto the surface of the im-.

7 pressio'n cylinder of said perfecting unit during the perfecting impressions.

5. A rotary sheet fed perfecting letterpress having printing units for applying impressions on one side 'of sheets fed to the press, a perfecting unit for applying impressions to the other side of said sheets, and a series of successively cooperative transfer drums arranged in a substantially horizontal plane between said units for conveying the sheets from one printing unit to the next, said perfecting unit comprising two plate cylinders and one impression cylinder coacting with both said plate cylinders, sheet engaging grippers on said impression cylinder which, in their sheet holdng position, are with-drawn Within the periphery of the cylinder, and anti-offsetting means associated with said impression cylinder for preventing oflFsetting of ink from preceding impressions onto the surface of said cylinder as the sheets receive the perfecting impressions.

6. A sheet fed rotary perfecting printing press having adjacent units and comprising a printing unit including two plate cylinders and an impression cylinder coa'cting with both, gripper elements on said impression cylinder fully recessed within the periphery thereof, means including at least two transfer drums each having gripper elements for transferring sheets from an adjacent unit and presenting them in register and in reversed relation to the grippers of the perfecting unit impression cylinder, a delivery drum having gripper elements for taking the sheets from the latter impression cylinder, the gripper elements on the transfer drum adjacent said latter impression cylinder, and the gripper elements on said delivery drum being arranged to project beyond the periphery of their respective drums, and the axes of said drums being located to the rear of the axis of said perfecting unit impression cylinder, while the axes of the coacting plate cylinders of the latter unit are located forward of the axis of said impression cylinder.

7. A printing press as set forth in claim 6, in which anti-offset means is provided which includes a roller having a fixed axis of rotation for depositing offset pre-'- venting fluid onto the surface of the perfecting unit impression cylinder, said means being located to the rear of the latte'na'nd between said last transfer drum and delivery drum, said fully recessed grippers on the perfector unit impression cylinder providing clearance for said roller.

8. In a multi-color, unit type, rotary perfector letterpress having one or more identical printing units adapted to print sequential -ir'npressions on one side of sheets fed thereto, the provision of an additional unit arranged to apply one or more color impressions upon the other side of said sheets, an impression cylinder in each of said units, means comprising 'a plurality of transfer drums between the units for transferring the sheets from the impression cylinder of one unit to the impression cylinder of the next unit, gripper elements on said cylinders and on said drums, and means including a roller having a fixed axis of rotation for applying anti-offset fiuid to the surface 'of the impression cylinder of said additional unit, the gripper elements of said latter cylinder being fully recessed within the periphery thereof whereby to provide clearance as they pass said roller, and the gripper elements of the drums adjacent said impression cylinder projecting beyond the periphery of their respective drums whereby to effect translation of the leading edge of each sheet from its position at the periphery of said drums to the fully re cessed position of the impression cylinder grippers and back again to the periphery of said drums in progressive steps.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,282,642 Scott Oct. 22, 1918 2,100,852 Jacobson Nov. 30, 1937 2,360,340 Harris Oct. 17, 1944 2,542,867 Harrold Feb. 20, 1951 2.702.002 Koch Feb. 15, 1955 

